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Wednesday, January 04, 2012

I can't believe the holidays are over and it's already 2012! I suppose I'll have to take down my Christmas tree -- even though I wish I could have colored lights up all year round. Thanks to everyone who subscribed to my new site! The winners of my contest for signed ARCs of Dark Companion and cover flats are:

Kelly H & Lelelia

Congratulations! I'll be emailing you for your mailing information. I'll also be having more contests for Dark Companion swag when it's available.

Even though I'm looking forward to my new writing projects, I haven't forgotten my old pals from the Casa Dracula series. In fact, I have great news -- the Casa Dracula books will be coming out as audio reads!

I've always wanted my books to be recorded, but my publisher owned the audio rights. When I was finally able to get those rights reverted to me, I didn't have a clue how to get them made into audiobooks. So I did some research and found out about Amazon ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange). ACX gives book rights owners a way to connect with audiobook producers and talented voiceover artists. I listened to several actors and when I heard Patricia Fructuoso, I knew she would be perfect as my narrator Milagro.

I think ACX is an amazing opportunity for authors. Publishers are hoarders as far as audio rights are concerned: they collect them in overwhelming piles until they've forgotten what they have, but they still don't want to give any away. Since producing and packaging CDs is expensive, only really big books ever made it to audio. However, digital technology changes the whole game -- more and more people are joining sites like Audible to get MP3s of novels. There's no shipping or shelf-space required for a digital recording.

Creating an audiobook means that I have one more chance to go over my manuscript, make tweaks and corrections. I'll update you about the process and share the new cover art when it's available. (And I met a marvelous illustrator at a friend's latke party!) The audiobook should be available in Spring 2012.